My Hope for Obama: Building a World Free of Unnecessary Barriers, Stereotypes and Discrimination

Just over a year ago, I turned into the parking garage at my college---I never park there, but it was the semester break with no classes being held----and was motioned to turn around and go out by the security guard. The garage was empty save for a car or two and when I asked the guard what was going on, she replied,

"Secret Service."

What in the world, I thought as I drove up to J.F. Kennedy Boulevard, were the Secret Service doing at Saint Peter's College, the small Jesuit college where I teach?

When I opened my email in my office, the answer was evident: Barack Obama was going to speak at our gym the next day. The gym is 30 seconds from my office and my first thought was, I'm going----then I checked the time, which was something like 2.30pm, when I need to be home to meet Charlie's schoolbus.

It was the day of the New Hampshire Primary. I had called Jim excitedly about Obama coming to Saint Peter's College and then Jim and I were calling each other as the results came in from the polls. I'd been charting the candidates' positions on autism and disability and was pulling for Obama, and dismayed when he lost by two points to Hillary Clinton.

And the next day, Obama was to be in Jersey City, at my college, whose worn brick buildings occupy about a block and a half or so of space in Jersey City.

There's always traffic---cars and the buses many of the students take, but also fire engines, police cars, and ambulances by, throughout the day----on Kennedy Boulevard. Across the street from my office are two tall apartment buildings, their bricks an indiscriminate yellow-soot-brown and front yards of broken concrete. Everyone's car---including a little yellow schoolbus with the windows painted dirty white--- is rusty, dented, has "seen better days."

I briefly thought of bringing Charlie to the rally and as quickly cast the idea from my mind. I'd have to get him out early from school, never a good thing to do, and there would be a lot of waiting and crowds and having to sit quietly and still. So inbetween getting Charlie a snack and running back and forth from his room, I saw people lining up on Montgomery Avenue and Kennedy Boulevard in this Star-Ledger video. In the Yanitelli Recreation Center where we meet for Michaelmas to open the year and announce the Dean's list and where, twice a year, we have Open House where high school students walk around in a semi-daze and try to explain what they think is going on to their parents who don't speak much English, I saw the rally and Obama saying

"My voice is a little hoarse, my eyes are a little weary, my back is a little sore, but my spirit is strong."

The crowd roared and clapped and Charlie was saying something over and over. So many cell phones cameras were up and everyone was smiling as Obama walked up the stairs of the gym to the quad. I watched Obama, standing under a lopsided pine tree, speak outside Saint Peter's College through a megaphone to those who weren't able to get into the rally (close-up video here). I watched as he walked across the quad, Gannon Hall (the science building) in the background and shook hands and smiled, and everyone beaming (except the Jersey City police officers and the Secret Service all looking appropriately stern and official).

One of my colleagues told me last week, that she's going to be "there," in DC at the inauguration. Needless to say, I wish I could be there with her----needless to say, that'd be even harder than getting into Jersey City that afternoon a year ago. Things have been more wearying and tiring and full of ache of late and yesterday had a tough, rough ending.

But we've got Charlie and we've got hope and yes, yes we can.

What I hope for in the new administration

• To work towards fully funding IDEA.
• To restore the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
• To improve college opportunities for students with disabilities.
• To effectively implement Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act, which requires the federal government and employers who are federal contractors to “take affirmative action to employ and advance in employment qualified individuals with disabilities.
• To provide resources to encourage the private sector to hire persons with disabilities and to ensure that workers with disabilities and family caregivers get the flexibility they need at work.
• To ensure Americans with disabilities of the rights affirmed in the Olmstead v. L.C. decision, according to which states are required to place people.
• To build a world "free of unnecessary barriers, stereotypes, and discrimination" as described in his plan to empower Americans with disabilities.
• To make the US a place where diversity of every kind is accepted.